THE
90 PERCENT CLUB

Topics: Failure; Greed; Humility; Money; Risk; Stewardship; Success

References: Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:10, 17–19

Michael Donahue, founder of InterWorld Corporation in New York City, was elated when his company’s share price skyrocketed in a public stock offering in August 1999, earning him $448 million. So he splurged big-time.

He bought a $9.6 million second home in Palm Beach, spent $100,000 to help sponsor his polo team in Florida, and dropped a bundle renting a private jet so he could whisk off to Palm Beach on weekend jaunts with his wife. “It was a lifestyle thing,” he says.

Today Donahue is a member of another club—call it the 90 percent club—of executives whose companies’ stock prices have fallen that much or more from their peak. The value of Donahue’s InterWorld stake has plunged to $12.6 million; the share price falling 96.8 percent to $2.94 from a peak of $93.50 on December 31, 1999. Donahue was asked to repay part of a $14 million loan he took out with his InterWorld stock as collateral. And he had to put his Palm Beach house on the market for more than $13 million.

“Going up was easy,” Donahue says. “But when it starts going down, no one wants to talk to you. It’s been the most challenging personal experience of my career.”

—Susan Pulliam and Scott Thurm, “Echelon of Ex-centimillionaires Sees Stakes Plunge as Net Craze Fades,” Wall Street Journal (October 20, 2000)